Goslar - Quedlinburg, Germany

Wednesday 29th September 1999

We began today by heading further into the Harz mountains. After a couple of weeks of flat plains it was nice to see some hills once again. Our route took us through the centre of the region and past several nice villages. We also crossed the border formally separating East and West Germany. It was signalled by a lonely abandoned watchtower and a sudden degeneration of the roads. We were back into cobbled streets and the dreaded Umleitung, or diversion. One pleasant diversion was the appearance of a steam locomotive about to take a train up into the mountains. They run three different lines in the region and we ended up seeing a few in operation.

By lunchtime we'd reached the town of Wernigerode, another on the ye-olde-village tour. We found a very nice town square with many nice streets full of half-timbered houses leading from it. Although whilst pleasant enough it wasn't quite as captivating as some others we had seen.

We journeyed on from there to the town of Quedlinburg, a veritable mother lode of half-timbered houses. Virtually every building in the quite considerably sized old town had some architectural distinction. The town's East German history showed itself as we moved away from the town square and saw a number of buildings badly in need of repair, some almost ruined. Strangely though it almost seemed not to matter. There were so many historical buildings in the town that they could afford to let a few go.

We spent several hours wandering the streets and climbing the hill to the old castle. Eventually night began to fall along with some rain so we decided to finish up. We headed back into the mountains hoping to find a nice spot for the night. We weren't disappointed as we chanced upon a tree-sheltered place by the side of the road. Nice to be back in the mountains.